Weekend Economists Mark D Day, 2014 June 6-8, 2014

[xchrom]

16. Welcome to Baku Fiercely Modern, Millennia-Old, Capitalist-Socialist, Filthy-Rich Capital of Azerbai

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-04/welcome-to-baku-the-fiercely-modern-millennia-old-capitalist-socialist-filthy-rich-capital-of-azerbaijan.html

Welcome to Baku, the Fiercely Modern, Millennia-Old, Capitalist-Socialist, Filthy-Rich Capital of Azerbaijan

Baku's newly opened Fairmont Hotel occupies one of three flame-shaped skyscrapers whose curved facades, come nightfall, transform into giant video screens depicting blazing fires. From the 27th floor, there’s a lovely view of the Azerbaijani capital and its crescent-shaped bay in the Caspian Sea. One evening, an employee joins me at a window near the elevator and directs my gaze to a 162-meter pole topped witha national flag the size of two tennis courts. With evident pride, she tells me it’s the tallest flagpole in the world. In 2010, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev marked its unveiling with an elaborate ceremony featuring scores of goose-stepping soldiers.

The catch: Less than a year later, Tajikistan, another oil-rich ex–Soviet republic, unveiled its own record-breaking flagpole, 3 meters (10 feet) taller than Azerbaijan’s. For some reason -- likely related to this country’s notoriously tight control of its media -- word of Tajikistan’s one-upmanship hasn’t spread. My window mate isn’t the first to claim this record for her country, and she won’t be the last.

No matter. Baku has already moved on to bigger, better and more expensive and eye-catching trophies, as Bloomberg Pursuits reports in its Summer 2014 issue. Among them are a radically undulating arts center designed by Baghdad-born starchitect Zaha Hadid; a $640 million soccer stadium that will serve as the main arena for next year’s inaugural European Games; and, still on the drawing board, an archipelago of 50 fake islands with deluxe apartments for at least 400,000 people.